TEHRAN: Jailed Iranian activist and former cabinet member Mostafa Tajzadeh, a prominent figure of the Islamic republic’s reformist camp, has been charged with “propaganda” against the state, local media said Monday.
Tajzadeh, jailed since July 2022 in Tehran’s Evin prison, served as deputy interior minister under the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who oversaw a rapprochement with the West between 1997 and 2005.
He was sentenced to five years in prison in October 2022 on charges of “plotting against state security” among others, his lawyer said at the time.
Reformist daily Hammihan said Monday that new charges had been brought against Tajzadeh, accusing him again “of plotting against state security” and “propaganda against the Islamic republic.”
He had already spent a total of seven years behind bars, having been arrested in 2009 alongside other reformist leaders following the re-election of hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a vote contested by the opposition.
Tajzadeh, an outspoken commentator on national politics via social media channels operated by his relatives, said in a letter “that he would not appear in court” in the new case, according to Hammihan.
If convicted, Hammihan said, Tajzadeh could face up to six more years in jail.
In recent years, he has urged democratization and called on authorities to enact “structural changes” in the Iranian political system.
Iran brings new charges against jailed reformist: media
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Iran brings new charges against jailed reformist: media
- Tajzadeh, jailed since July 2022 in Tehran’s Evin prison, served as deputy interior minister under the presidency of Mohammad Khatami
- He was sentenced to five years in prison in October 2022 on charges of “plotting against state security” among others
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
